As organizations based on communal ownership, smallholder producer cooperatives are deeply rooted in the principle of democratic participation, which ensures that the cooperative’s activities benefit the community as a whole. Incofin, advisor to the FAF, considers good corporate governance fundamental to a cooperative’s ability to achieve its mission and to ensure its long-term sustainability.

In addition to strengthening cooperative governance through capacity building projects, the Fund’s Technical Assistance Facility (the TAF) recently developed, with the help of two governance experts, a practical toolkit that has now been implemented with several producer cooperatives in Central America.

While corporate governance is undoubtedly a complex system involving a range of topics, the toolkit intentionally focuses on five key areas:

Best Practices in Cooperative Governance

Meetings and Decision Making

Conflicts of Interest

Succession Planning

Evaluating Governance Performance

We hope that this toolkit proves useful in promoting best practices in corporate governance across the sector. The FAF will continue to support producer cooperatives in this area both through investment and technical assistance.